Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Category: cooking

  • Starting My Granny Blanket: Excitement and Challenges

    Starting My Granny Blanket: Excitement and Challenges

    Firstly, I have finally updated the Granny Blanket pattern. So if you have been waiting to start, now is the time. I am starting the blanket itself today! The stitches will need to be doubled from the pillow cast-on and the yardage needed per wedge, tripled. This will be a lot of work. But so worthwhile in the end. It is a good accompaniment to the long term Blanket Squares Project that I have going on as well. It will break up the boring knitting with the blanket squares and fancies!

    I am so excited to be starting. I want to get a few wedges knit before it gets too hot! Who is starting with me?!

    Granny BlanketDownload

    Secondly, the main part of the house is completely done. I still need to do more organizing and it is an ongoing process. I change things around trying to find the best possible spot. The pictures are the hardest. I have so many. My mothers needlework, family pictures, and art I have collected over the years.

    I have put up pictures and then moved them. And then moved them again. I can see this may take a while. These few are in their final place. I hope!

    Thirdly, the yarn room is about to be started. It got delayed as it needed more work than expected. Which meant the plans had to change etc. But it sounds like it is going ahead, starting midweek.

    Getting the yarn room done will help with my organization project as well! More room available, but with more stuff coming out of storage. This will be the start of the final cull. I am sure that this will be both challenging and rewarding. I may be looking or some second opinions.

    Walking in the Canyon

    Last weekend we went for a walk on an absolutely glorious Sunday. We went to my favourite place on Nanaimo River. The canyon by Cassidy. It has great swimming in the Summer and great walking all year round. You can see that others enjoy the walk as well.

    Everything is starting to bud. The fawn (or curly) lilies are in full blown and carpeting the underbrush. Did you know it takes 7 years before even 1 flower comes from the root? Amazing. How long it must have taken to create this display.

    A few weeks ago I started with Odd Bunch vegetable delivery. A box is delivered once a week, or less. You decide how often you want the box. The box varies in price with the size. I get the small plus box. It is $26.00 per week plus delivery and it comes right to the door. Below is last weeks box.

    It has been very interesting and I think it has proven to be a good value. It has been challenging to cook some of things I wasn’t totally familiar with. I gave the butternut squash to my daughter. Maybe I need a new cookbook! LOL! The quality has been good. Only 1 item in one box was disappointing. Strawberries – just a little to close to the edge. I should have noticed and used them sooner.

    Happy Knitting and Happy Cooking!

    Lynette

  • Meeting Hank: My New Induction Stove Experience

    Meeting Hank: My New Induction Stove Experience

    Post Script

    I know that a PS is supposed to come at the end. But life interrupted the blog post and so it is at the beginning this time. There has been a real flurry of activity around here.

    The inside of the house is complete. There is still the wool room, but it is on hold for a couple of weeks. The next couple of weeks are for finding places for the stuff still in the storage locker. We will also let go of some of the stuff from the storage locker. Before we moved I got rid of some things but kept others “just in case”! So now comes the final cull!

    Hank

    Meet Hank, my new induction stove. He is not really dressed fully yet – his backsplash is being installed tomorrow. But he is still looking pretty jaunty.

    Hank is a thrifty guy. Uses less power, almost 50% less than a regular stove and cooks faster. Simply because the heat transfer is instant. The old stove that came with the house was on its last legs. It had an old glass top, which I hate. The heat cycling always made it hard to control the cooking process. Induction stoves give you much more control, almost as good as gas. Some chefs think that they are better. They certainly are safer for people and the environment.

    Now Hank is also a pretty fancy fella. Turns out that he requires his partner to invest heavily into all the modern doo-dads! Like pots, magnetic pots, induction requires pots that will conduct electricity. Now, in my working theory, stainless steel pots are magnetic and nearly every one of my pots was stainless steel. Hank and I would get along just great. Or so I thought. That was right up until the moment I started cooking!

    My base supposition was incorrect. Turns out old stainless steel pots were not magnetic! They need a carbon core to become magnetic!

    So, Saturday evening I am planning to cook a meal on my new stove! I didn’t check the pots. I just filled and placed on the stove and waited for the magic to happen! There was no magic! There was no heat! This new relationship was going nowhere!

    So I found a magnet and proceeded to test every one of my pots and my favourite roaster. Nothing, nada, they were all duds. Thirty years of collecting pots down the drain.

    And I mean collecting. Do you remember when Paderno pots first came on the market. They ran sales with “try me” pots. I couldn’t afford the sets, or the regularly priced pots. I was a single mum on a very limited income, but I watched for those sales. I collected every “try me” pot there was and occasionally even bought a full priced pot!

    So back to Hank and the Saturday night supper. So here it was. Six pm and nothing was happening in the kitchen. Talk about a fraught moment!

    I was thinking I needed to start a new collection. Buy pots one at a time, just like the early days. My real beau, my husband was having none of that! He said lets go and get a new set of pots, a whole set, all at once. Live a little, he said. So off we went and bought a full set of induction ready pots!

    Once we got home we washed what we needed and proceeded to start again!

    Hank came through. There was magic! The water boiled within minutes, the fry pan heated almost as fast and everything proceeded as it was supposed.

    Sunday I went and bought a new roaster. It was actually a large au gratin pan, made by Hestan. However, it looked like my old open roaster. And it could go from oven to stove top, which was necessary if I wanted to make gravy. Which I almost always do.

    Hank, is all dressed up with the new backsplash. It is Danish porcelain that was on sale at City Tile. Beautiful patterns and sheen.

    My old pots owed me nothing. We have already taken them off to find a new home. They held a lot of memories. We cooked big family meals with them. We shared food with friends around the table for high days and holidays and everything came from those pots.

    I really do have a thing about pots. A while ago I wrote about my grandmothers pots. These pots will not work with this stove because they are made from cast aluminum. However, the turkey roaster will still roast in the oven. The birds are the best when roasted in that roaster! And memories will still be made.

    I did keep my turkey roaster. Nothing could replace that.

    Hank, the new pots, and I are going to team up. We will create more memorial moments using the new pots and old recipes!

    Happy Cooking

    Lynette

    PS. for real! Next month’s square is almost done. If you want to add the beads you will need a few extra supplies. A 1.0mm crochet hook and 24 size 6/0 beads. Mine are clear mirrored glass. They sort of look like raindrops!

  • From Traditions to New Memories: Our Unique Holiday Story

    From Traditions to New Memories: Our Unique Holiday Story

    This year was not a traditional Christmas for our family, but it was perfect nonetheless.

    Quite often our Christmas Day is culminated with Christmas Dinner that will encompass everyone, friends and family – up to 20 or so bodies at the table. And it all started as the smell of the turkey pretty much enveloped our guests as they walked in the door and up the stairs to the living room which had a center table set-up with a cheese board, and lots of baking. At the table there will be crackers, toasts, a table groaning with more food. There is always so much conversation and laughter punctuated by the occasional sip of wine!

    And the conversation. Lots of individuals catching up and sharing the happenings since their last visit or since last Christmas. And I am at the head of the table ready to refill bowls, pass the gravy and listen. I listen and just take it all in and I take so much joy in the presence of family and friends. I do not usually get much visiting in or get to share in the finer details of the evening, it is just not possible to do it all!

    This year was different. Because we have downsized and the space needs work and mostly because we need a kitchen renovation – the stove doesn’t work well enough to bake anything properly so we decided not to do the big dinner this year! I do not trust the stove! The kitchen reno will be happening soon, hopefully! That will another full story or two I am sure!

    So, as a result these things happened:

    My brother and his wife did Christmas dinner. It was just us and them. Much laughter, starting with the fact that they chose Prime Rib for dinner not turkey! Guess what we were doing for Boxing Day! Yup! Prime Rib! Another family Christmas tale was born. We laughed and visited for a few hours.

    Boxing Day lunch a good friend and her son came for lunch. We have know each other for over 38 years, we even shared a home with our children for 2 of those years. That was a two hour visit with lots of laughter and conversation.

    Boxing Day dinner, my son, daughter and grandson were there! There was laughter and conversation, memories and more conversations.

    Day of after Boxing Day my nieces and nephews and their family came for a quick visit – that turned into a couple of hours of shared laughter and memories. All of us sitting around the table, eating the nibbles and just being together.

    So – the moral of the story – sometimes the ritual forgets the point of the season! The shared time and love with family and friends. I did miss making my small Christmas gifts, the baubles and tree decorations. I really missed decorating our home. What we did was very minimal as we had to buy everything as almost everything we owned related to Christmas was in the back of the storage locker!

    Who know what next year will bring!

    Happy New Year to all!

    Lynette

  • What’s On Your Needles?

    What’s On Your Needles?

    Right now I am working on a few different ideas. A cabled hat, a dress and a shawl (both have been hibernation for too long), a headband, a couple of sweaters, and way too many others projects that need assessment!

    I think this one exceeds the sum of its parts! What do you think? More pictures below.

    Quickie Update

    Well it is obvious that Quickie needs a new name. For starters it really wasn’t that quick and really it doesn’t suit the beauty that this project turned into! It is blocking right now – and I am rushing it along with a few blasts of warm air from the blow dryer so that I can share some pictures.

    So lets have a little competition. I am looking for a name for this very pretty, textured, and quite happy shawl. It has beautiful stripes highlighted with waves of lace patterning and is finished with cheerful, bouncy bobbles! I think that it has quite the playful vibe. The winner can pick one of my patterns on Ravelry and I will gift it to you! (You would need to be on Ravelry for this as I would need a rav name to send it to!) So put your thinking caps on and come up with something that you think appropriate.

    I cannot say enough great things about the Poema Stripes yarn that I used for this. The colours move beautifully and the merino is very soft and bouncy. It made for a very satisfying knit. This yarn is not cheap, but at 150 grs and 450m, there was value for the cost. It is a non superwash which was important to me as well. Some other things on my knitting list (you know the one – it is never ending), were pushed to the side while I played with this yarn. The way this yarn has been spun is amazing. The average yardage in 300grs of worsted weight wool is approx 600m or 660yds. Poema has 900m, which makes for a very light, but cozy shawl.

    Basic Stats: 300 grs, or 900M worsted weight yarn, 5.5mm US#9 long circular needle. The bind-off round took almost 35 -40grs (approx 100 – 120 yds) of yarn. I had only 13 grs left after the bind-off. Bobbles do eat up yardage. The pattern will need to be updated, but that might take a while. It was approx 50 inches by 18 inches before blocking. After a relaxed blocking; it was wet blocked but not pinned or stretched, just smoothed out onto the towels. After a relaxed blocking it was 68 inches long and 22 inches wide. Each lace pattern measures 4inches across.

    The bobbles as a closures was a complete fluke! But it looks deliberate! Sometimes in design things just happen!
    I chose bobbles for the border simply because I think of them as happy and fun and a little playful. Which is how I think of this piece.

    Next Year at Mad About Ewe

    I have been working on the theme for next years classes at Mad About Ewe Fine Yarns and I think I have come up with a bit of theme. I am going to spend the year looking at socks. I haven’t designed any in a while and there seems to be a renewed interest in knitting the more interesting kinds. So are you interested in socks? Did you try them and go “never again”, or did you become hooked?

    When I started knitting socks I think I knit over a hundred pairs of heavy socks to give away, sell and wear. Once I move onto 4-ply socks the knitting slowed down, but I still have over 20 pairs in my sock drawer that are worn in rotation. This way very few of them wear out. I also have a few pairs umm, only half done or some just started – It is the way of socks.

    There are sooo many options for socks; different heels, classic, dutch, afterthought, short-rowed and toes, box, blossom, grafted; different ways of construction including top-down and toe-up, with double points, long circs, short circs etc. Tube Socks (perfect for kids), Spiral Socks, Work Socks, Dress Socks, Slip-Stitch Socks and even the lowly basic sock, which takes on a new life in all of the fabulous socks yarns we have today.

    I love the Fall, the changing of the leaves, the cooling of the temperatures and even the way the skies darken so much earlier. Even in the Fall the lingering flowers have great beauty. I have been watching the hydrangea in my new place slowly fade as the cold progresses and isn’t it beautiful?

    Last Wednesday I was out at Rathtrevor with a friend. It was glorious, the wind was howling, the waves had whitecaps and the clouds were racing across the sky. There were a couple of kite surfers on the water and we watched them for a while. The eagles and gulls were gliding on the winds and the small birds were darting around the tangled rose bushes. It was an amazingly exhilarating walk! It started to rain just as we left. What a day.

    Are you a soup person? I have noticed that some people don’t like soups. I love soup. I could easily have soup every day for lunch, even in the Summer. Soup with crackers, soup with bread, soup with croutons – just soup!

    I baked a ham earlier in the week so I am currently making a stock with the bone and vegetables and herbs. I will most likely make a pot of split pea soup this evening. Something for lunches this week at work. There should be enough broth for me to freeze so that I can make a pot of split pea soup another weekend. Ham, at the end of the day, is a very economical purchase and now-a-days that is important. It does dinner, breakfast and lunches and then offers up a couple of meals of soup!

    Happy Knitting! I am hoping for a few good names to show up!

    Lynette

  • My Grandmothers Pots

    I have a few of my Grandmothers pots. They are Guardian Service Ware. She had bought them from a travelling salesman in the early 40’s. They were very expensive then and very well made. They are very heavy cast aluminum with glass lids. Originally they had heavy metal lids as well but they switched to glass during the second world war.

    I think my Grandmother bought them over a period of a few years. She had the most amazing collection of these pots. From serving ware, trays and coffee pots to every cooking pot and skillet you could think, in every size.

    The Guardian Ware pots and pieces were/are very heavy, made from thick cast aluminum and with pieces that could multitask. For example the big Stock pot, a 12 quart, kettle oven, canner, stock pot. that will take a large turkey and turn it into stock, also came with stacking racks to cook up to two pies and and canning insert! It did it all! My father took it camping once and made biscuits in it on the fire.

    My father bought them off of my Grandmother in the early 1970’s. We grew up with food cooked in those pots. As my father got older and cooked less often he started to pass the pots along – quite a few to me. I have the big stock pot that I am using plus a few other pieces. My two roasters have the metal lids. One is a turkey roaster that will hold up to a 22 lb turkey! It is perfect. The heavy metal lid holds in the moisture and cooks the turkey faster! My brother has a few pieces as well. They are amazing.

    I mostly use the big stock pot for turkey stock. These pots are not recommended for anything tomato based. The acid in the tomatoes leaches aluminum from the pot. Not good for us. (My mum her spagetti sauce in those pots, before we knew about the aluminum! That might explain a few things) The only physical drawback the pots have is the lids. Those glass lids are heavy and can take a little beating but they are glass. They are hard to replace.

    My favourite pots in the set when I was younger were the triangularly shaped pots. They usually only came out when we had company. A big trivet, designed to be used with the pots, was set over the largest burner and then the three pots were set on the trivet and they cooked three vegetable at once! My father still had the set 25 years ago. He used it at Christmas. But we can’t find it now. My brother has looked through all of the boxes. I keep hoping that there still is a box that he hasn’t checked.

    The Guardian Ware pots are over 80 years old and are still used and collected today! Sometimes old is better, great pots can last and be heirloom items. Of all the things our family gave us, to my brothers and I, these pots hold the most memories and are the most coveted!

    You can find pieces on Ebay and Etsy and there is also a collectors site to look for pieces that you may be missing! I recently saw a gravy boat available for sale! it was tempting.

    Happy Cooking!

    Lynette

  • Cranberry Sauce anyone?

    Cranberry Sauce anyone?

    This upcoming weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving and we celebrate it in our home with family and friends and of course, Turkey and all the trimmings. I am getting a bit of a head start today by making the Cranberry Sauce.

    I make a big batch because I always need to send some home with a couple of the guests. The recipe is very easy to half if you only need a small batch. This one makes about 8 cups of sauce.

    • 8 cups of cranberries – the local Yellowpoint Cranberries are fabulous
    • zest of 2 oranges
    • 1 and 1/2 cups of water
    • juice of 2 oranges
    • 2 cups of sugar

    Throw it all into a large pot and bring to a boil. Cook for about 10 – 12 minutes. I like lumpy sauce – lots of cranberry chunks so if you like it a little smoother, cook a little longer.

    Once the pot is off the stove, add 3 tablespoons of Grand Marnier or Triple Sec. Stir into the sauce and then pour into bottles. You can seal them if you like. I usually just pop them into the back of the fridge once they are cooled.

    The house smells so good as the sauce cooks.

    Such a lovely colour.

    One of the things I love about this recipe is the colour of the berries mixed with the colour of the peel as it is cooking! It reminds me of one of my favourite Handmaiden colourways – Sangria. The header above is a photo of yarn from Handmaiden dyed with Sangria. Even when I cook I am thinking about yarn! LOL!

    Happy Day!

    Lynette